members of the same family working in the same place

[greeneggsandjam]

Hi

I have a question, not sure if I will word it well but here goes! In my place of work there are 2 family members (Father and son). Father is currently in charge of the dept I work in, the other is not in the dept. It could be possible that the son will come and join our dept making him my line manager so to speak and his line manager would be his dad. So if I had an issue with the son I would have to go to the Dad about it. I could of course go higher and miss him out but anyway. There would also be times when appraisals based on our work in action would be carried out and the person doing the appraisals would be the Dad. Wouldn't the son be given lots of prior help by the dad and possibly a more favourable appraisal than if they weren't related?

I just wonder if this is allowed or not? It isn't a private workplace, its more like a hospital/government place of work. I hope I am worrying over nothing and that it isn't allowed. I'm not sure I fancy working in a situation where I feel I have to be on guard with everything I do and say for fear of it being reported back to Dad. I don't envisage any issues as I get on well with the son, but you never know what will happen.

Thanks in advance.

[OllyBJolly]

Yes it's allowed. Some of the businesses I work with have the whole family working there!

You're right to be cautious but you can only work on the premise that the management is fair until proven otherwise. Hopefully there would be a formal grievance procedure in place which means that any complaints could be raised appropriately.

The problems get really tough when it's a family owned business because there is often nowhere neutral to escalate to.

[greeneggsandjam]

Hi thanks for replying. Hmm. It does seem unfair, yes I have wondered about working for a family run business where lots of the same family are involved, that could be stressful!

I just cant imagine why management would go for it when there are other options.

[W00woo]

Hi. I have known this happen before, and that the expectations on the equivalent of the son were much greater than his peers as everyone was so keen to prove that no favouritism was taking place.

[OllyBJolly]

That's true, W00woo - sometimes the expectations are higher and the family members get a harder time because of who they are. And it would be unfair if people were not promoted because of who they are related to.

Generally, family businesses can be great places to work. Tend to take more interest in the worker as a person rather than just a resource.

I think romantic liaisons (illicit and otherwise!) harder to deal with than family relationships, tbh!